Home found in a foreign land: Abby Hepner’s time as a missionary kid
Trinity Adams, News and Feature Editor
Abby Hepner, junior at NGU, was just four years old when her parents received the call to go to Serbia. Her family moved to Serbia as church planters with the International Mission Board. They moved there with the cover of her dad being a coach for football, since it was not very popular in the country at the time.
Hepner does not remember a time before Serbia, as she was four when her family first moved there. Shortly after they arrived, her parents enrolled her in a local Serbian school, where she was quickly immersed in the language and culture. Neither her teacher nor her classmates spoke English, but since she was there at such a young age, she feels like she picked up the language quickly. She described it as when an American child learns English.
“Being so young, I kind of just absorbed the culture and learned from there. I really don’t remember learning Serbian, I just know it,” said Hepner.
Growing up in Serbia was something that she considered normal but safe. Her family first settled in a small town called Kraljevo. In elementary school, she and her friends would walk themselves to school and go out to the town center to play together. The Hepners were able to successfully start a church in that city, and she credits it to being so immersed in the culture from the beginning.
“I think what made that specific ministry so successful the first time was that they had partners, but they left less than a year into their term. It was just my family; we were the only Americans in the whole city. They had to go out and make Serbian friends. The people and friendships that they made then are now people that I consider my aunts and uncles,” Hepner said.
According to Hepner, Serbian religion is very orthodox and similar to Catholicism. They don’t truly have a faith of their own and attend church on holidays and for ceremonies because their parents and grandparents did. They consider themselves Christians, but they don’t have a relationship with God, and they think that the Bible is something for the priest because it is holy.
“It wasn’t us trying to introduce them to the idea of God. It was more explaining that Jesus came, died on the cross for your sins and wants a personal relationship with you. For them, it was like, ‘What do you mean? God is like this thing above us. Why would he become personable?'” explained Hepner.
Hepner’s dad essentially created football culture in Serbia. When they first arrived, they were playing without pads, so he had the equipment shipped in and started playing and coaching. Since her family’s cover was football, the main ministry opportunities were on the field and in their home when they opened it up to players, families and members of the local community. Hepner’s mom would invite the players and families over for American snacks like brownies and cookies. This was where they could truly minister to people.
The Hepners lived in Kraljevo until she was 12 years old, when they moved to a bigger city, Kragujevac. During that time, Hepner’s mom gave her the option to either keep attending Serbian school or begin American homeschooling. Hepner explained that Serbian education is good, but it is not up to par with American education, and she knew that she wanted to go to an American college in the future. From second grade to fourth grade, Hepner had been attending Serbian school and doing homeschooling in English, which is a heavy course load for an elementary schooler.
She attended the Potter School, which is an online homeschooling program. She also attended Liberty University’s online academy. During middle and high school, she really began getting involved in mission work.
When they moved to Kragujevac, her father went on to coach one of the nation’s best football teams and even the national team; however, he never strayed from the mission of sharing the gospel and planting a church. In Kragujevac, they were able to plant a church that really focused on building up members and sending them out, which is when Hepner started to get involved in mission work.
Her church and family would do Monday outreach, where they would go to cities, share the Gospel and hand out Bibles. She recalled times when they had Bibles thrown back at them and that they were called a cult, but it never stopped their mission no matter how discouraging it got.
She told what her first experience was like sharing the Gospel to a non-believer when she was about 15. She went out with her mentor and saw two girls sitting on a park bench. She went over to them and explained the drawing of the three circles, which depicts creation, the fall and Jesus’s crucifixion. Her voice was trembling, but she felt so much peace on the inside.
“My voice was quivering and my hands were shaking the whole time, but I remember that when I was sharing, I was so nervous on the outside, but on the inside, I felt peace,” said Hepner.
Although that conversation did not lead to a decision to follow Christ for either of the girls, Hepner walked away encouraged and realizing her personal mission to share the Gospel. The Hepner family moved back to the U.S. in July of 2022, a month before she started college. For Hepner, it was like a culture shock after being gone for so long.
“It took time to adjust, but I’ve been here three years now, and I consider it home,” said Hepner. “It was super helpful to move back and go right into college because everyone is experiencing that same thing, but to a different degree.”
She described feeling homesick and being angry that she was back in the U.S., longing for the home she found in Serbia. Once classes started and she found the community of missionary kids at NGU, she started to consider this her home.
Despite the shock of being stateside again, Hepner found her place in the NGU community and continues to share the Gospel and serve in local missions around the country.
Feature image courtesy of Abby Hepner
